IntelliRoll Foam Roller Review

First off…. give me a week or so to get a video review up. I want to show you a few tricks that you can do with the IntelliRoll that I cannot with my other foam rollers. Yes… I have more then one 😉 They all serve a purpose, but since I have literally fallen in love with the IntelliRoll over the weekend I wanted to get this review up since a bunch of you were asking.

I first saw the IntelliRoll in last months issue of Muscle & Fitness. Great magazine by the way. You can literally have a new program every month and the year subscription costs like $25!! I was really interested in how it was shaped and since I foam roll quite often I wanted to give it a try.

So I pulled out the old credit card and ordered it on Wednesday afternoon and got it Saturday morning! My wife actually opened it and was like… “oh wow look at this thing!”

Firm or Flex?

When I was actually ordering I saw they had 2 types… the FIRM or FLEX and I was not sure which one to order. I Googled to see if I could find some reviews about each type, but there wasn't much. In the end I gabbed the FIRM as you can see from the picture.

Why? Well basically I have been foam rolling for a long time and I know how to do it and I am more used to it. The FIRM is well… pretty FIRM as for the FLEX I do not know, but it says it is a bit softer. If you are new to foam rolling or don't like “PAIN” 😉 hehe I would say go for the FLEX

If you have never foam rolled before it can be intense. Sure there are times where I will sit on the floor and roll while watching tv which helps loosen you up, but when I really dig in, foam rolling can be a workout in itself, but man you loosen up for sure!

Neck Issues

My neck is a mess! I had a herniated C5 about 5 years back and although I am pretty active with working out and doing Spartan Races, I spend a lot of time on the computer which is brutal on the neck! I am actually going to make the IntelliRoll part of my “5 minute breaks” I take during time on the computer to stretch and move around.

So you can plainly see the channel right in the middle that is for your neck and spine. I was a bit skeptical at first, just for the fact that I am SKEPTICAL in general.

Literally the first thing I did with this was line my neck and roll myself back

FIRST thing…. take it slow. You can end up putting a lot of weight on this if you try to go fast. So just take it slow and roll/hold it. You ever try to put all your weight on your spine on a flat foam roller? Ouch!

As soon as I started rolling I heard some cracking! Now I am a CRACKER. Everything on me cracks. That is not the worst thing in the world if things crack somewhat naturally, but ballistically cracking like when you snap your next is really not the best… but yes I DO IT! Ugh I do that a lot. Not so good.

Anyways back to the intelli roll. It felt good rolling my spine up that. I gotta say it loosened me up and just kind of aligned me. I spent a few minutes just rolling and holding up and down my spine, but like I said go slow and get a good feel for your positioning.

AWESOME: So the one thing I like to do a lot with my other rollers is just lie on it with the back of my neck and watch TV. Just slowly roll my neck side to side. I find with the channel and the curved sections it is actually a bit more comfortably and allows me to loosen it up a bit more. On my straight roller the flatness of it just starts to hurt the longer I am there. Hope that makes sense….

Normal Forward/Backward Rolling & Side To Side

Variety Is The Spice Of Life!

You can obviously tell there are many variations of use with intelli-roll and that is what really makes it different!

You can see in the picture my leg fits right in there and with the curve it kind of cups the leg which is good. You can't really get that with a FLAT foam roller, but flat rollers do some awesome stuff too!

You can see the edges are flat…. maybe it could have been a bit wider on the edges to get more muscle on the flat surface, but it does allow you to really pin point a trigger point and work it out. You can see me leveraging the flat edge in the image below.

Arms, Legs, Neck, Forearms:

Sometimes people forget that foam rolling is not just for legs. You can hit it all with a foam roller. If you have never rolled out your triceps, biceps, or forearms then you have to give it a try!

The channel in the middle lets you work your triceps and forearms really nicely.

Like I said I will get a video review up, since I haven't even had the chance to really dig into this roller.

Side Calf Release…. ah….

Focusing On A Trigger Point

Like I said above, the edge could be a bit wider, but where the curve meets the flat part, it gives more leverage then your typical flat roller so it lets me really dig into the side calf… I think its called the “peroneus longus” but that is a real pain point I have and rolling it is magically… yet painful 😉

You can see how I can leverage the side of my calf where the curve meets the flat part. With a regular flat roller is is pretty much impossible because you actually have to try and use the outer edge of the roller and there is no leverage and your calf slips off.

Yeah that's my cats feet in the top right! LOL

Conclusion:

So if I was in the market for a new Foam Roller then the IntelliRoll would be the one I would buy, since it really has multiple functions. When I ordered they were having a sale “$49” plus FREE shipping. If you use the code FDC you can get an extra %10 off, so pretty sweet deal! I paid like $80 for my rumble roller which is great, but does not compare to the IntelliRoll. Go ahead and CLICK HERE >>>> to check out the IR FIRM Roller and be sure to go the learn section and see the videos they have showing all the ways to use it. Pretty cool!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions. I will try to follow up and get that video up with me actually using it and showing you some tips!